By: Patrick Lim On Friday, the ministry of trade and industry released the latest GDP data showing our economy declined for a second straight quarter, which signaled that our nation has entered a recession for the first time in six years. Which means Singapore 'earned' the dubious distinction of being the first Asian economy to fall into a technical recession. On a seasonally adjusted quarter-on-quarter annualised basis, real GDP declined by 6.3 percent in the third quarter after contracting 5.7 percent in the previous quarter, the ministry said. While it did not describe the economy as being in recession, a technical recession is generally defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction in economic output. On this, our Prime Minister Lee said; "We must prepare for a rough ride at least over the next year, and quite possibly longer." and Lim Swee Say, Secretary General of the National Trades Union Congress was quoted as saying by Channel NewsAsia; "as the downturn continues, we can expect realistically that retrenchment may pick up," and; "Let's accept that there's no guarantee our real wages will not go down." My comments: In a slowing economy, it is perhaps inevitable that those joining the ranks of the unemployed will swell but all those darn bills will still have to be paid in a timely manner. Despite this, it is also a truism that the uncertainties of life like dying prematurely, being disabled or even diagnosed with a critical illness will not diminish, however much we may wish for these to go away. Therefore, in times like these, it should serve as a timely and hopefully not crucial reminder to get back to the drawing board on reviewing one's wealth protection planning (or the lack of it) so as to batten down the hatches to survive the current financial storm. Source: Everything U Need To Know On Insurance